A Study of the Henry Ellis Fowler, John Fowler, and Israel Fowler lines

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JOHN FOWLER, Hatter (c.1775-1833)

John Fowler, Hatter. This is how our John was often referred to in documents of the early 1800’s in order to distinguish him from the elder John Fowler who lived in Union County in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. There are many records where he was referred to as “John Fowler, Hatter.”

Who was the father of John Fowler, Hatter? Researchers are divided on this question. Some think that he was the son of Henry Ellis Fowler and wife Catherine Puckett; others think he was the son of the elder John Fowler and wife Fannie. My speculation is that he was the son of Henry Ellis Fowler, but only DNA testing or the discovery of documents buried deep within the courthouse vaults will give us the answer.

Sarah may have been the name of his wife, although I have not yet been able to document this theory. If his wife was living at the time of his death, she was not mentioned in his will.

John the Hatter was born circa 1775, and died in Union County, SC between the time he penned his will on December 14, 1832, and February 9, 1833, the date his will was recorded in probate.

He left his estate to his son Lemuel Fowler, his three daughters Desina, Catherine, and Omey, and his grandchildren from his deceased daughter Delila Fowler Whitlock.

He left many descendants, although there are only a few direct male descendants who still carry the yDNA which would unlock the mystery of his parentage.

Let’s take a look at the children and their offspring of John Fowler, Hatter.

DELILA FOWLER was born circa 1791 and died before 1832. She married William Whitlock (1789-1867).

son born circa 1829; died before 1850. Speculation that Delila died during the birth of this child.

Children of William Whitlock and a possible second wife:

John “Jack” Whitlock 1832-1909; married Nancy Fowler 1845-1897 (daughter of John and Elizabeth Fowler). They had one son-

Thadeus L. Whitlock 1866-1918

Mary Whitlock 1833-1917; never married

Altissima “Alta” Whitlock 1836-1918; never married; buried at Gilead

Charles Whitlock 1838-1895

William Whitlock 1839-

Sarah Whitlock 1841-after 1880

Amanda Whitlock 1845-1895; never married; buried at Gilead

DESINA FOWLER was born circa 1802 and died circa 1840. She married James Walton McWhirter (1800-1884).

Mary Anne McWhirter 1822-1887

William Lafayetter McWhirter 1825-1870

John Walton McWhirter 1827-1899

Susannah C. McWhirter 1828-1853

Louiza A. McWhirter 1832-1894

James R. L. McWhirter 1833-

Andrew Jackson McWhirter 1835-1903

Winnie Caroline McWhirter 1838-1899

Desina Jane McWhirter 1840-191

CATHERINE “CATY” FOWLER was born circa 1805 and died in 1866. Caty married Lemuel Johnson (1806-1875). It appears that they had no children, although it is slightly possible that they did have one daughter, name unknown to me.

After Catherine’s death, Lemuel Johnson married Mary Elizabeth LNU 1837-1917 and they had four children before his death in 1872.

William M. Johnson 1868-

Frances “Fannie” Johnson 1869-

Mary O. Johnson 1872-

Lemuel Asbury Johnson 1873-1928

LEMUEL HOLTER FOWLERwas born circa 1808 and died in 1864. He married Permelia “Milly Mitchell” 1811-after 1880. Milly Mitchell was a descendant of Rev. Elias Mitchell who died at the pulpit in Chester County, SC and buried in the old Mitchell graveyard deep in the woods above Jonesville, SC.

The story of Francis Marion Whitlock, son of Delila Fowler and William Whitlock.

Francis Marion Whitlock and his cousin Felix C. Haile (son of Milligan Fowler) were recorded in the same household in Chester, SC in 1850. By 1860, they had headed west to Llano,Texas and were living with a Haile family. Both men found wives in Texas; Felix marrying Pruda Bolt Garner, the widow of Thomas Garner, and Francis Marion Whitlock married Susan, last name probably Cooper.

Felix Haile and his family returned to Jonesville SC around the time of his father’s death in 1871. Francis Marion Whitlock and his family met an unfortunate end in Texas.

I have copied the information from Find a Grave to pass on the tragic events of December 7, 1870.

Source: Find A Grave

Birth:

1826
South Carolina, USA

Death:

Dec. 7, 1870, USA

F. M. and Susan Whitlock and 3 children were massacred by Indians at their Ft. Mason Crossing home. Buried in this common gravesite, they are commemorated with a historical marker on Park Road 4 and at the gravesite.Long Mountain was once a settled region to the northeast of Hoover’s Valley in far western Burnet County. It was never a well known settlement, only having a small schoolhouse. However, in early December 1870, the community’s name would become well known throughout all of Burnet and Llano Counties as well as all of Central Texas.At the time, the region on the north side of the Colorado River (present day northern Kingsland) was often referred to as No Man’s Land. Though there had been a military presence in the area since the late 1840s, tribes of Comanche Indians would often make raids upon the settlements on the south side of the river. Though these raids rarely resulted in the loss of life, numerous herds of cattle would be stolen and then taken across the river. Having lost several cows because of these raids, a resident of Hoover’s Valley decided that he would make a one man ambush against the Comanches as soon as they were crossing the Colorado near the Fort Crogan to Fort Mason military trail. His ambush would have harsh consequences.Late one night, the rancher waited with his loaded musket near the crossing. When the Comanches began to wade onto the shoreline, he quickly took a shot at them. His volley killed one of the leading members of the tribe, who some have claimed was likely the chief, and not wasting anytime; the rancher fled the crossing and made it safely back to his homestead where he was finally able to get a good night’s sleep, feeling somewhat accomplished in his mission.Early the next morning, residents awoke to see a towering pillar of black smoke rising high into the air. Upon investigation, they made a gruesome discovery. The source of the smoke cloud were the charred remains of the Marion Whitlock home, recently just having been set afire. Around the home, the farmers of Long Mountain uncovered the scalped body of Marion Whitlock, the lanced through corpse of his seven year old daughter, the remains of the family’s infant whose skull had been bashed against a tree, the family’s second youngest boy with arrows inside his little body, and inside the cabin they found the smoldered bones of Mrs. Whitlock who had been burned alive inside the house. It later became known that only one member of the Whitlock family had survived, a young boy, but he had been kidnapped and taken across the river.Feeling responsible for the sudden attack, the rancher who had ambushed the Comanches as they were crossing the river the night before, gathered the remains of the family and paid to have them buried at the cemetery at Hoover’s Valley in a common grave where they rest today. Patrols of soldiers and Rangers were sent out to track down the kidnapped child, as well as the captors, but nothing ever resulted from their searchs. The Long Mountain Massacre of 1870 is still a well known tale today of the Llano and Burnet areas of Central Texas. It shows just how rough, deadly, and savage life was in the days of the Old West and Indian Wars.{Sources Used
Jackson, Muriel et. all, Families of Early Kingsland, Texas and Nearby Communities in Llano and
Burnet Counties. Kingsland Genealogical Society, Kingsland, TX. 1998.}Here is a second article…..J. Marvin Hunter’s Frontier Times Magazine
July 28, 2014 at 12:55pm
·
WHITLOCK MASSACRE RETOLD
Mrs. W. J. Faris, 78, of Llano, vividly recalls the massacre of the Whitlock family in Llano county in 1870, the major Indian crime of early days in that section. She was a neighbor of the Whitlock family when a girl.
“I spent the Saturday night before the family was killed at the Whitlock home,” Mrs. Faris says. “We often went there and spent two or three days. Mr. Whitlock was plowing near the house when the Indians came and we suppose they killed him first. They set fire to the house and Mrs. Whitlock’s body was found in the ruins, but it never was known whether the Indians killed her or she burned to death. One baby was found in the yard. It looked as though they had pitched her out of the door because her head struck a rock and killed her.
“The other baby was found at the barn where the Indians had killed her with a stone. A 6-year-old girl was carried half a mile away and killed with a lance, the weapon being left in her body. The fourth child, a boy, was in the field with his father and the Indians carried him away. He never was returned, but I heard he was in Arizona a few years ago.
“Men living nearby saw the fire but reached the Whitlock place too late to save the family. They found the babies that night, and next morning discovered Whitlock’s body in the field where hogs had mutilated it. The body of the older girl was brought in and placed in a crib with the two younger children. Her hair was plaited and the Indians had jerked one off and placed it across her chest.”
Mrs. Faris says her father was in Llano that day, “and when he didn’t come home we were afraid he was captured or killed by the Indians. Later, he said the Indians crossed the road near him while he was returning. He became frightened and spent the night with friends.”
About midnight, she says, the men who had been at the Whitlock’s reached her home, expecting to find another massacre. Hunting parties went out from Llano in pursuit of the Indians, but, although the Whitlock home was on the main road between Llano and Burnet, the redskins escaped unharmed. with the Whitlock boy.
The Indians were believed to be the same band that killed a colored girl in a cotton field in the Yett settlement near Marble Falls the previous day, then crossed the Colorado river and killed a colored man, she says. From there they went to the Whitlock home on the east side of Long Mountain.
Mrs. Faris is the daughter of the late Isaac Sampson Haile, who settled in the Long Mountain community in 1853. The Whitlocks came to the Llano county with Haile from South Carolina. Her father ranched in Mason county and Mrs. Faris recalls that in his frequent absences driving cattle, her brother sat on the split-rail fence and watched for Indians while she milked.
[from J. Marvin Humter’s Frontier Times Magazine, January, 1937]Thank you to Janet Bertram for this contribution.

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One thought on “JOHN FOWLER, Hatter (c.1775-1833)”

Kirk R Whilocksays:

Hi. You’re a real sleuth. Thanks for your work and dedication. I am a decendant of William Whitlock and Delilah Fowler I believe. Through their son Felix Gaines, to his son Frank Marvin, to his son Felix Gaines (grandson of first), to his son Julian, my father. Le me know if I can help.
Kirk R Whitlock